Adolescents focus most on rewards and are less able to consider the consequences of alternative actions or learn to avoid punishments, a new study has shown.
The study, conducted by University College London, showed that adolescents learned best when they were rewarded. Adolescents were less good at avoiding punishments than their adult counterparts. Adults also performed significantly better when they were told how different choices would lead to a better outcome, while teenagers didn’t seem to take that into account.
The participants in the study were 18 adolescent volunteers aged 12-17 and 20 adults aged 18-32. They were asked to complete tasks in which they had to choose between different symbols. Each symbol was associated with either reward, punishment or no outcome.
As the study proceeded, the participants learned which symbols were likely to lead to each outcome and adjusted their choices accordingly.
The lead author of the study, Dr Stefano Palminter of UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, thinks the results may help with education.
"From this experimental lab study, we can draw conclusions about learning during adolescence. We find that adolescents and adults learn in different ways, something that might be relevant to education," he said in the study release.
"Unlike adults, adolescents are not so good at learning to modify their choices to avoid punishment. This suggests that incentive systems based on reward rather than punishment may be more effective for this age group. Additionally, we found that adolescents did not learn from being shown what would have happened if they made alternative choices," he continued.
Senior author Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience says the results can be modified into everyday situations with teenagers.
"It may be useful for parents and teachers to frame things in more positive terms. For example, saying 'I will give you a pound to do the dishes' might work better than saying 'I will take a pound from your pocket money if you don't do the dishes',” she said.
“In either case they will be a pound better off if they choose to do the dishes, but our study suggests that the reward-based approach is more likely to be effective.”